Spider/Pest problem in viv

[Fumbles]

Hello,

I've noticed I have a spider problem in my viv that has gotten completely out of control. They're big, black and ugly. Fortunately the identifying mark (red hourglass) isn't there but they're still quite large. I feel the only solution is to take everything out and fill it with water to drown all possible critters.

The problem is that the vivarium is planted with a naturalistic background. It'll take quite some time to disrupt and put back together what I've been growing for so long. Anyone have solutions besides flooding it? I was going to try dry ice in a bowl of water but I'm having trouble finding the stuff.

 

[Aimless]

you should be able to find dry ice at a lot of different grocery stores.

 

[mikew1234]

Dry ice does work well. Suffocates the insects while giving the plants a nice blast. You will have to likely reintroduce micro fauna, but that price is worth not having spiders.

 

[pakinjak]

Post a pic of the spiders?

 

[Fumbles]

It was so nasty I just decided to flood it. There were many visible egg sacs and various types and sized spiders everywhere in the background. I've had more luck breeding spiders than geckos it seems. I flooded it multiple times to dispose of them through draining the water (it's tough to drown spiders). The first flood was disgusting. Spiders seemed to pour out of this thing. I'm arachnaphobic so I let my ever so brave girlfriend kill the big females :biggrin:

No pics - I was too skeeved out. Some resembled black widows but not so shiney and no red hourglass sort of like a bulbous stink beetle. There were other types as well. Even babies trying to balloon out. I put the inhabitants in my spare viv with a little ultrasonic water vapor.

Now the whole thing is totally clean. I left the soil in there while cleaning because it kept the clay at the bottom in place. I replaced it with new soil that wasn't soaked afterwarrds. Dirty, nasty job but I'm glad its done. These geckos have the best temperment and were cool about being displaced. They pretty much stayed in the same position all day...like always.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

It's too bad that you flooded it. CO2 works wonders on killing pests without disruption of your vivarium. There's a great article here on GU about it. While some use dry ice for CO2, I prefer to simply use it in tank form which you can get at either a welding supply shop (they'll rent you a small tank for a few bucks per month) or Walmart, Target, etc (where you can get small sized containers of CO2 meant for paintball guns).

In any case, if your flooding trick doesn't end up killing them all, give the CO2 trick a try. It's much less invasive on your viv. Good luck!

 

[mister3]

^^^ dry ice in a cup of water will do the same thing and costs MUCH less than getting a Co2 tank set up

 

[Marauderhex]

But you can't use dry ice in a cup to be the CO2 source for a kegerator.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

^^^ dry ice in a cup of water will do the same thing and costs MUCH less than getting a Co2 tank set up

A little tank of Co2 for paintball costs very little from Walmart and is much easier to work with (not to mention reusable). $17 for the dispenser and Co2.


C02 Pump & Cartridge: Bikes & Riding Toys : Walmart.com